Carr Peak and the aspens

The most southern aspen grove in the United States is right here in the Huachuca mountains, along the Carr and Miller peak spur trails.  Unfortunately, the Brown Spot virus has weakened the trees.  This rhizome-spread virus causes the trees to prematurely turn yellow, and once they turn yellow, they quickly go brown.  This is why I had to hike up today, rather than wait another week.  The aspens had just started turning yellow two weeks ago when I hiked up the peak with SteveT.  Today the yellow was visible from the valley.

Next Saturday I'll be on my flight to Norfolk, VA to see the grandkids. This was my only chance to see the aspens in their autumn splendor.

I hosted a hike on Meetup and had an impressive turn-out:  Galen and his wife Sunny, SteveA and Steve, Jeff, Rick, Janet, KimG and Kim C-F (and her dog Buckley).  These are all hikers I knew from the SVHikers Meetup.  They are all strong hikers.  We had clear skies with mild temperatures.

We met at 7:30am at the Perimeter trail parking lot off Carr Canyon Road.  The Sky Island bike Tour threatened to slow traffic down, but only Galen was late and only by five minutes.  We carpooled up the road to the Ramsey Vista parking area where we took the Ramsey Vista spur trail to the peak.  I hadn't gone up Carr peak via this route in a few years.  Despite the lack of any springs along the way, I realized today that this spur trail is easier than the Old Sawmill trail that I use.  It's not as steep as the Old Sawmill, but it also lacks a spring for the dogs to refresh themselves in.

We quickly broke off into two groups:  the hares and the hares not.  Janet charged on ahead with Jeff and Steve, two hikers who had never been up this peak before.  They went on ahead to the peak while I waited at the crucial turn-off to the peak.  The sign to Carr Peak went missing back in March and hasn't been replaced.  For people who don't know to turn right (going uphill), they may inadvertently continue on the Carr Peak trail and end up at the Crest Trail another 1.5 miles down the trail.

Wildflowers were still present, but the yellow daisies near the top were not as vibrant as two weeks ago.  The pink and blue penstemons were also less noticeable.  The autumn flowers are now going to seed, although we still had a nice blanket of yellow as we climbed up and around Carr to the peak.

There were at least two impressive piles of bear scat along the trail.  The scat was fresh and loaded with small acorns (berries are out of season).  We didn't see or smell any bears and the dogs showed no indication that bears were nearby.  Seeing the fresh scat right in the middle of the trail, however, reminded us to remain vigilant.

The first of the hares not group was only 15 minutes slower than the hares. Rick and Galen went up to join Jeff, Steve and Janet on the peak. KimG stopped at the intersection to wait for Kim C-F.  Both Kims made the intersection their final turn-around, with only .3 miles to the peak.  SteveA was the last one to get to the peak, and I waited with him so he could eat his snack while the other peak baggers resumed their return hike.

Clouds began to form as we were on the peak, cooling down Zeke.  The initial forecast was for "mostly sunny" and it remained that way, but a gentle breeze added more cooling effect as the sun rose on ahead.  We really lucked out with the weather.  More people were going up the trail as we finished the trail 4:10 hours after our start.  That was not a bad time for a group this large.  Everyone waited in the parking lot.  Even dog Buckley, who had run on ahead of Kim to join the other hikers in the parking lot, greeted the rest of us.

I wasn't expecting everyone to wait around for the rest of the group.  This was a nice gesture that I appreciated, so I asked if anyone was interested in going to grab a bite to eat.  We settled on Papa's Diner on SR92.  All but three came.  Rick, Galen and Sunny (who said she will never do Carr Peak again, probably because of the allergies she suffered from during the entire hike).  I had a patty melt again.  Both Zeke and Buckley had their free "puppy patties."  We chatted well over an hour and I didn't come home until almost 3pm, again to a quiet house.